By TANIA PHILLIPS
MATHS can seem like a dry, intellectual subject with no practical purpose, but not so says John Muehlebach, maths teacher at The School of Total Education in Warwick.
And to prove his point, during Term four the Year 10 SOTE maths students built a parabolic solar cooker.
“Students learnt that parabolas have the special property that causes them to focus energy from the sun to a single point,” he said.
“Students were given an assignment in which they needed to calculate the shape and dimensions of a parabolic cooker from a quadratic equation and then build and test it.”
Mrs Collins, the art teacher, then taught the Year 10 art class how to mould plaster into the shape of the parabolic dish.
The dish was then pointed to the sun, and before you could calculate a quadratic equation, the students had cooked a fine dish of butter chicken which the whole class enjoyed.
“The parabolic dish project had never been attempted before, but ended up as the learning gift that kept on giving, with every step revealing yet another application of a mathematical concept and simultaneously stimulating the students’ interest and curiosity” Mr Muehlebach said.
